Hollywood Lies questions - item and bonus cards

I have read all there is however I still can't understand what to do with the bonus cards and item cards, please explain?

Do the producers give me (host) the seed funding and advertising fund? And then does this go towards the points at the end?

Is the 'other people' part of the character sheet used for when the character tries to achieve the goals while using the ability cards?

My response:

Hi - thanks for your questions about Hollywood Lies.

Item cards: These are handed out with the character information for the players to do what they want with. For example, several characters have brought movie screenplays with them, and these are needed to make a movie. So the producer will need a screenplay (and may have more than one to choose from).

Movie Bonus cards: Movie bonus cards give an extra bonus to a movie and mean that it will be more successful. The producer of a movie will want as many movie bonus cards as possible - and they are all added into the score at the end to see which is the 'best' movie at the end of the evening.

Other People: The Other People part of a character sheet lists a few key facts about other characters in the game that that person knows. (The idea is that this is enough to start a conversation - and the information might be something relatively trivial, or it could be quite critical.)

The Other People section is also used by several of the special abilities. In this case, it's only the information in the Other People that the ability affects, not anything else in the character sheet.

I hope that helps - and good luck with Hollywood Lies.

Can Hollywood Lies be played in 90 minutes?

I'm interested in using Hollywood Lies for one of my middle school language arts classes. I see that the game takes approximately 3 hours, but we'll have about an hour and 20 minutes.

At most, we could do it in the evening in 90 minutes. Is it possible to speed up the game that much? We'll have around 32 kids playing.

My response:

I honestly don't know if you can play Hollywood Lies in only 90 minutes. That means cutting quite a bit out of the playing time, and doesn't allow for any introductions or wind-down (which can take some time).

Also these freeform games tend to take a bit longer with more players, so that's another reason why it might be difficult.

But that's not to say that it can't be done. If you do decide to try it, do let me know how it works either way.

Click here to learn more about Hollywood Lies.

Help - website shut down after purchasing Hollywood Lies!

by Jody
(Gold Coast, Australia)

I paid for Hollywood Lies today (Fri 27th Aug 2010) via freeformgames.com and as soon as I clicked on "get password" to download the game the website shut down.

I'm throwing a surprise 30th for my friend on Monday Night (30th Aug)and running out of time to prepare. So far I have no password and no game!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!

My response:

I've checked with Freeform Games and they tell me that they spotted that you didn't get the password email and sent it out the following morning. (So you should have it by now!)

They're looking into the problem - you should have received the email automatically.

I hope you have a great party!

Click here to learn more about Hollywood Lies.

PS - an update - it turns out that Freeform Games did get back to Jody in good time and the party was a success.

All girls, no guys - Hollywood Lies

I'm doing Hollywood Lies for 18 people with all girls, three of them (including me) have offered to be guys but no one else is up to it. Can we change it to a girl part or would that just be awkward?

Also, my Dad was reading through it, he said to me "are you sure you want to do this? It seems complicated and stressful! What if nobody feels like acting like someone else?" Is putting together a murder mystery party hard?

My response:

Hi - good news! Hollywood Lies is now available in a completely gender-neutral version, so all the characters can be played by both girls and boys. (Note - when this question was first asked there were some specifically male and female characters.)

As for whether the game is hard or not, it's no more difficult than playing "let's pretend", and almost anyone can do that. Preparing and hosting the part does require a bit of work on the part of the host (presumably that's going to be your Dad, yes?), but my experience is that once everyone gets their costume on and into character then they'll be so busy wheeling and dealing and solving the murder that they'll have a great time.

I hope you do stick with it - it's worth it!

I hope that helps - do let me know if you've got more questions.

Click here to learn more about Hollywood Lies.

Hollywood Lies Question

How long is Hollywood Lies?

My response:

Hollywood Lies takes about 2.5 hours to run - slightly shorter if you have the minimum number of characters.

However, this excludes meeting and greeting (for which you can add at least 30 minutes), and the game wrap (which is another 30 minutes or more).

If you give yourself four hours, you'd have plenty of time.

Click here to learn more about Hollywood Lies.

Hollywood Lies - Raising movie seed money

by Angela
(Buckinghamshire)

We're planning to play Hollywood Lies next week. I've been reading through the information but I'm puzzled about one thing.

The movie producers need £100,000 to fund the movie. They start with much less than this and also need money to buy charity ball tickets. Where do they get the rest of the money? Do people pay them to be in their film?

My response:

Yes, the producers do not have enough money at the start of the game to do everything that they need to do. So they will need to wheel and deal...

The most likely way they will do this is to get the people in their film to contribute to the seed money (it's likely that they won't have any in-game reason to keep the money anyway).

But I would think of it as "investing" in the film...

I hope that helps.